ATKINS — Saturday’s 23rd annual Arkansas Children’s Hospital Rodeo and Firework Show raised $12,500 for Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) in Little Rock — the most money the event has raised since it was established.

The rodeo was a standing-room-only affair at the Atkins Riding Arena, with fans still pouring in after the rodeo officially began. Ticket sales were not officially tracked, so there is no way of knowing the exact number of people. But Mark Tucker, rodeo stock contractor, said it was the largest crowd they’d ever had.

“I couldn’t give you a number, but the stands were full,” he said. “What’s really cool is that people came to this that don’t come to any other rodeo because of what it is. It’s a benefit for the children’s hospital. All of the money goes toward the children’s hospital.”

Schmoll founded the rodeo 23 years ago and Tucker joined the cause a year later. When they began, neither thought the event would eventually pull in more than $100,000 for ACH.

“When we started out we were getting a couple thousand,” Schmoll said. “We thought we were doing something back then and it grew from there.”

“You don’t really think about it,” Tucker added. “But the more you do it and the more you realize what the money goes to and how important it is.”

Tucker said each year the money is hand-delivered to ACH, then hospital staff gives them a tour.

“When you take a tour and you see the work they are doing — when you see an infant child that is prematurely born and fits in the palm of your hand — that gives you the fuel to go back and do everything all over again,” he said.

Donations weren’t exclusively held to ticket sales. Money from concessions and admission to a dance after the rodeo were also donated directly to ACH. Tucker said some people chose to give money directly to the rodeo for no reason outside charity.

“We had people coming up from out of state and in state that just handed us money to donate,” he said.

“They’d just walk up and say, ‘Are you in charge?’ and then they’d just give me money. It was amazing how many people did that. This was after they’d already paid to get in to the rodeo.”

Both Schmoll and Tucker agreed while their names are associated with the rodeo, the event could never have been so successful without a long list of volunteers who donated both their goods and time to the cause.

“We want to thank every volunteer that volunteered time for this,” Tucker said. “Me and Richie can’t do this by ourselves. It takes a multitude of people and there are too many to list.

“You can take and take, but every now and then it’s good to give back. That’s what the world needs more of.”